ILS facing very tight budget

Tuesday

Apr 30, 2013 at 12:01 AM

This spring will be fraught with challenges for Inland Lakes Schools officials trying to balance and off kilter budget.

By MARK SPENCLEYmark@cheboygantribune.com

This spring will be fraught with challenges for Inland Lakes Schools officials trying to balance and off kilter budget.Though there is much yet to be determined with State education funding as the House, Senate, and governor all have different ideas as far as how the budget will breakdown, the reality of looming cuts at ILS is certain. As it stands, using the governor’s budget proposal as a baseline, ILS will need to trim upwards of $670,000 before the school board can pass a balanced budget in June.“We’re living in really challenging times in education,” explained ILS Superintendent Fred Osborn. “We have really difficult decision to make and the factors leading to them are out of our control.”For school districts across the state, financial challenges have been a reality for years, worsening each spring and funding stays static and expenses continue to grow.“I was putting together information on retirement costs and health care costs, two of our biggest expenses, compared to revenue over the last 10 years,” said Osborn. “In that period, our expenses have doubled, while our revenue has grown by 4 percent. How do you keep up with that? You can’t.”Another factor that has crippled ILS’s budget in recent years is precipitous enrollment declines. This year, 69 seniors will graduate, while 45 kindergarteners come in to replace them, a net loss of 24 students. “This doesn’t even take into account the trend data for declining enrollment,” said Osborn, referring to the declines that result for students moving and changing districts.ILS gets roughly $7,000 per full-time student enrolled.All options are being considered this spring. Among the cuts that will likely occur are layoffs to staff. Staff members who could potentially be without a job will be notified in the coming month. For teachers, pink slips will be issued on May 20. For support staff, they will be issued slightly later.“The frustrating thing is I have to issue these pink slips based on a worst cast scenario because I need to give them 60 days notice before the date their employment is terminated (which is the first day of school),” Osborn explained.“In reality, a lot of the people who get pink slips will be coming back, but I have to let them know there is a possibility they would be laid off through reductions,” he added.The board is mulling the potential of offering and early retirement incentive to eligible teachers. The incentive would be roughly $10,000 for teachers and $8,000 for support staff. These two figures reflect to costs of unemployment and healthcare incurred by the district when a staff member is laid off. “Basically, for every teacher who takes it, its one layoff we don’t have to make,” Osborn said. “Its not an expense to the district. We’d be paying out the money anyway, so we might as well pay it to someone retiring at let someone else keep their job.”The biggest challenge of balancing a district budget is navigating the unknown. “Its so tough because you’re flying blind,” Osborn said, obviously frustrated. “That’s how we have to make cuts and those cuts affect people. We’re messing with their lives. They (state officials) really need to get this figured out. I mean come on. There’s a better way.”